


Fire and the Flood

by kayyte



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Grumpy Alex, I hope, M/M, Some Humor, adventurous zach, crazy cyrus, how do people do this, i've read so many fics but i cannot tag, im just slow, im not good at tags, im sorry, updates will come, what we're not gonna do is erase alex's disabilities, worried justin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 12:32:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14769692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kayyte/pseuds/kayyte
Summary: The destruction of bad memories and the creation of good ones. A story of healing and rebuilding.





	Fire and the Flood

_What Went Down - Foals_

_\-------_

Clay barked orders and ran off into the flurry of dancing, possibly drunk teenagers, and Alex couldn’t decide whether the intense pounding in his ears was his head throbbing or just the loud music.

“What the fuck? Clay!” Justin yelled after him, but he was gone. Alex felt his mouth go dry and the looks on the others’ facial expressions mirrored his own.

“Don’t just stand there! Do what he said!” Ryan shouted, making frantic movements with his hands. Cyrus and Mackenzie were the first to run off to lock the doors, Ryan and Courtney left different directions as well.

“I’m gonna make sure nobody leaves.” Justin called over the loud music, and Alex half-consciously nodded, staring at his seemingly spinning feet and feeling his vision swim. Alex felt a large hand grip his wrist gently. The hand was warm, he was cold.

“We gotta go check the doors.” Zach said to him, head ducked down to his eye level. He hated that. He didn’t want to be treated like he was made of glass, but he knew it was beyond his capabilities to help. He knew his own place, clearly Zach didn’t.

“No, go on without me,” Alex hissed, whipping his hand out of Zach’s grasp. “I’m fucking useless.” Alex felt his eyes prick with tears he would never admit, not even to Zach, who could probably see his eyes go shiny anyway.

“That’s bullshit, Alex. Come with me, you’re helping. We’re helping.” Zach ducked under Alex’s shoulder and prepared to pick him up.

“Leave me the fuck alone, I’m just gonna slow you down.” Alex pushed Zach away and nearly fell over, stabling himself on his cane and Zach holding his elbows.

“Alex, please. You’re not useless. But if we want to get anything done, we’re going to have to try our best. Can you do that? Please?” His best friend looked at him straight in the eyes and Alex fidgeted under the intense eye contact. But he licked his lips and nodded, allowing Zach to pick him up. Before Alex could mumble about being embarrassed they were at the front doors of the gymnasium. Zach detached himself from Alex and pushed through curtains to check the lock on the glass front doors, leading Alex with his hand. He froze. Alex stabled himself and walked over to Zach, peering out the glass doors to see what had made the jock freeze.

Outside, was Tyler, with a gun to Clay’s chest. Jessica and Justin stood behind them, frozen. Clay was speaking, but they couldn’t hear. There were police sirens in the distance and Tyler visibly tensed, gripping his (huge) gun tighter.

“Holy. Shit.” Alex said, gaping. Zach was no better, knuckles white in Alex’s.

“Zach?” Alex looked up at his friend. “Hey, Zach.” He leaned his cane against the glass door and used both hands to rub the back of Zach’s hand.

“Look at me.” He said. Zach gulped, peeling his eyes from the scene in front of them, feet away.

“We need to trust Clay. The kid has some fucking issues…” Understatement, Alex thought. “But he knows what he’s doing. Okay?” Zach stared at him, as pale as his tan skin would let him go. Alex felt an unfamiliar ache in his stomach, one that he wanted gone immediately.

“Okay.”

 

_Fire and the Flood - Vance Joy_

_\-------_

Alex really, really hated seeing Bryce Walker in the Liberty hallways, it made him boil with anger just to see his stupid face. But what Alex did like to do was flip off Bryce with every chance he got, whenever he saw him. And usually it was a burden to be in the same Math class as him, but there was that one perk.  
“Very mature, Standall.” He heard Bryce mumble behind him. In response, Alex flipped him off with his bad hand too. After getting bored, he dropped his hands into his lap and slid down in his chair. Math was always long on a Monday morning, painful and tedious. He had physical therapy training with Zach after school today, but those lessons were usually the highlights of his week. So he spent the day wallowing in exhaustion from his constant lack of sleep, and trying to forget the events of last Friday, and that feeling of utter shit that he felt when Zach was afraid. That feeling nagged at him so much it got on his nerves. He could remember the feeling, like a sinkhole opened in his gut and all positive feelings fell deep down, leaving him aching for his best friend to stop shaking.

But Alex was no poet, so what did he know.

He was particularly tired today so after the mistake of going to first period Math, he skipped English to sit on the shiny bleachers outside, basking in the warm morning sunlight.  
He let the sun warm him up in his back jacket, and he hugged his stomach and abandoned his cane on the bleacher next to him, far away, but close enough to grab when he needed it. He hated having to watch it all the time, not to forget it or go anywhere without it. He didn’t want to depend on a curved wooden stick. Yet, he did.  
It was beautiful irony for him to sit outdoors and watch the football players play a game that was one of the many things Alex could not do.  
He knew that Zach was playing, recognising his jersey number, so he watched him. Alex watched his friend catch the ball and toss it great distances, dodging other players and sprinting between them to get in position. He also saw Bryce, in all his asshole-ness. He couldn’t get away from that dick, could he?  
Alex zoned out after a while, the sunlight making him sleepy.

He was gently tapped on the shoulder awake, blinking his eyes open to see Zach crouched in front of him, holding his helmet in his hands. Alex yawned and rubbed his eyes with his sleeves.  
“What are you doing here? You gotta stay out of the sun or you’ll turn to dust.” Zach said jokingly.  
“I’m not a fucking vampire, you dick.” Alex yawned again, taking away the false spite in his comment. Dammit.  
“I’m just not in the mood to deal with school today. Or any day. Plus, its nice out here.” He explained. Zach pursed his lips and nodded in agreement.  
“You staying here today then?” Zach asked.  
“Probably just going to stay here till lunch.” Alex said. He knew skipping an entire day wasn’t good, he did need school. But he could at least skip a few classes.  
“Alright then.” Zach sat beside Alex and placed his helmet beside him. He leaned back on his hands on the surface of the bleachers.  
“But grades are important, dude. Go to your classes after, okay?” He added, nudging Alex with his elbow gently.  
“Yeah, whatever.” Alex smiled and shook his head, looking down at his feet. There was a peaceful silence between the friends until a loud cheer from the field caught both their attentions. Bryce Walker, in all his asshole-ness, cheered within a group of rowdy boys hollering over a successful distance shot into the goal. Alex rolled his eyes and exhaled.  
“Fucking dick.” He mumbled to himself.  
“Three months is not fucking enough.” Zach growled from beside him. This caught Alex off guard, since Zach was generally calm and collected. Seeing this kind of emotions out of him was…Unusual. Alex thought it was perhaps what Bryce did to Hannah, and how Zach loved her. It made sense.  
“It really isn’t.” Alex sighed, bringing his knees closer together and making himself smaller beside the large jock. He probably thought their little scene looked funny; this tiny, broken, scrawny boy curled up beside a buff, tall letter jacket wearing tank. But it was far different up close, the jock was the one who looked broken. It was in his eyes, and it showed up as soon as the topic of the conversation was Bryce.  
“Are you okay?” Alex asked, quietly. He could see the look in Zach’s eyes, something distant. Something far away from here, and Alex wanted to bring him back. Get him to smile.  
“Fine. Why?”  
“Nevermind,” He said. “Hey, you know what?” Zach whipped his head in the shorter boy’s direction.  
“What?”  
“Living in the past sucks. Let’s destroy it.” Alex shrugged. He grabs his cane and lifted it up, pointing across the football field, to the Clubhouse. Zach didn’t respond, just stared at the building Alex pointed at. Lips pursed, Alex could tell he was contemplating. Alex knew that Zach was probably convinced, but probably wondering what the consequences would be and how to execute the plan.  
“Lets do it.” Zach finally said.

 

_Way Down We Go - Kaleo_

_\-------_

Wednesday was going to be the day. The day they destroy the bad memories, the bad experiences. It all starts with the Clubhouse. They planned it during their physical therapy training.

Alex recruited Justin and Zach brings Cyrus into the mix. Clay was invited, but refused to take part, so he was sworn to secrecy. Cyrus got his hands on gasoline and Justin and Zach search the shack for anything that could still be useful. Alex would be the lookout while the boys worked, and he would be the one to light it up. Zach insisted he do as much as he could since he came up with the idea, despite Alex saying time and time again there wasn’t much he could do.

 

It was late Wednesday night, Zach had told his mom he and Alex were doing extra PT at the pool.

“Don’t worry about burning down the school, the fake grass doesn’t burn so it wont lead to the school.” Alex assured them.

“Fire didn’t spread when Tyler and I lit up the field.” Cyrus nodded.

“Let’s get to it, then!” Zach smiled.

“Calm down there, Demphsey.” Justin said.

“Sorry, I’ve never done something this crazy before, like, this is huge. To me.” He shrugged, smiling sheepishly, holding a jug of gasoline in one hand. Cyrus hugged his large bottle of gasoline, smiling wildly at the others.

“Come on before we get caught. I’m taking a huge fucking risk doing this, so let’s not get caught.” Zach nodded at Justin and followed him inside.

Inside the room was dusty and dark, and Zach, Justin and Cyrus quickly began unscrewing their bottles of gasoline and pouring them in different corners of the Clubhouse. Zach moved around the back way and paused when he saw a familiar polaroid camera. He knew, for a fact, that this was the camera Bryce used when they…

Never mind.

He promptly dumped an unnecessary amount of gasoline on the camera.

Finishing up, he mirrored Justin by throwing the empty bottle into the room and leaving. Cyrus padded behind them as they left, and drop-kicked the empty gasoline bottle back into the shack and hollered in excitement. Justin frantically shushed him. Zach approached now stood up Alex and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Ready?” He smiled.

“Let’s light this shit up.” Alex said, swiping the match against the box. With a little flame erupting on the stick, he tossed it into the doorway, the light of the flame disappearing for a moment. They all took a few steps back, a safe distance to watch the outcome of their actions. Quickly and quietly, fire grew from inside and soon the windows were full of flames and smoke was clouding the air.

“Fuck yeah!” Cyrus cheered, punching the air out of triumph. Justin laughed breathlessly, running his hands through his hair. Zach’s smirk grew and he looked down at Alex, who had a small, sneaky smile on his face. The flames were glowing yellow, light bouncing off Alex’s eyes and curves of his smile. He was beautiful.

Zach froze in his place, smile dropping as the world stopped around him, eyes trained to Alex’s face.

 

Ruining the moment, though, was the rough tug of Justin’s hand on his jacket hood.

“Guys! Coach!” He hissed.

“Run!” Cyrus pulled on his hood bolted after Justin, away from the scene. Zach felt a wave of adrenaline as he spotted the flashlight in the distance, and next thing he knew he was racing across the field with a squirming Alex in his arms and a dumb smile.

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! updates soon!


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